1011. 
TI I ZD Ire Iff Ka L, NSW-YOKKEri 
lLiO' 
OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY. 
In his paper December 9 E. G. Lewis pro¬ 
poses a new plan or scheme by which he 
says all the losses sustained by his creditors 
will be made good, provided they come into 
the plan. It is not made delinite just how 
this is to be effected, but it seems to be 
intimated that it is to come through mem¬ 
bership in the new Regents’ Corporation and 
profits on its business. What do you think 
about it? Do you think he is sincere in it? 
New York. old creditor. 
If we believed Mr. Lewis sincere in 
this scheme we would think him a 
raving maniac. Those who have had 
dealings with him have no reason to be¬ 
lieve him a fool. There is nothing new 
in this scheme. Mr. Lewis has worked 
it over and over again. It has been part 
of the stock in trade of swindlers for 
two centuries. It involves the principle 
that you are to get something for noth¬ 
ing, and the deduction that Mr. Lewis 
has a magic for creating wealth, which, 
in view of his record, requires a depth 
of imagination we do not possess. Like 
all get-something-for-nothing schemes, 
you have nevertheless to put up cash or 
property first In this case we have a 
mixture of business, philanthropy, senti¬ 
ment and fake. Let us look at it. 
An assumption of sincerity and sanity 
would lead us to look for a financial 
statement. We don’t find it in this pros¬ 
pectus. These concerns are all bank¬ 
rupt—in the hands of receivers. Mil¬ 
lions of dollars in stock and mortgages, 
and notes and bonds and certificates and 
debentures have been issued. Nobody 
knows the total amount. Expert ac¬ 
countants were on the books for months, 
and abandoned the task. The Lewis 
attorney told the court it was impossi¬ 
ble to tell the obligations of the Lewis 
concerns. We take it from this that he 
does not know himself. But it is esti¬ 
mated that the obligations alj told would 
exceed $8,000,000. This has been as¬ 
serted, and we have not seen that it 
was denied. Would any sane and sin¬ 
cere man ask his friend to put ineney 
into a new concern that was to start off 
with such a burden of assumed debts 
without even finding out what the ac¬ 
tual amount of that debt was? 
Now suppose the people know the 
amount of the obligations and were 
willing to undertake it. Suppose it 
proved an exception to the Lewis en¬ 
terprises and succeeded, how would it 
work out? How long would you exnect 
it would take to make a profit of $8,- 
000,000? In the meantime, how about 
the different interests? In the first 
place, if we understand 4r. Lewis, 
the Regents’ Corporation is a sort of 
trusteeship, immune to courts and exe¬ 
cution proof. If this is so, how anyone 
can secure legal interest in it, or main¬ 
tain a legal claim against it is more 
than we can understand. Aside from 
this, some get their membership in it 
for $100; others for $50. Some are to 
surrender secured claims or bank secur¬ 
ities having some cash value; others sur¬ 
render Lewis papers which are entirely 
worthless. The only requirement is 
that each and all put in papers repre¬ 
senting value or cash, or both, and by 
some magic to be exercised in the fu¬ 
ture all are to pull out millions. You 
are not told how long you must wait or 
how much you are to put in. You must 
give Mr. Lewis loyal support. That may 
be interpreted to mean that you put up 
all he asks in cash, and as often as he 
asks it. If you put up some and refuse 
more, will Mr. Lewis call that loyal 
support? 
We have been discussing the propo¬ 
sition on the assumption of success; 
now let us look at the prospects of fail¬ 
ure. Mr. Lewis has organized a little 
less than 100 concerns and schemes, 
probably 60 at least. It is estimated 
that the people sent him $8,000,000 for 
investment in them, it may be more or 
less. They have all, except this new 
one, been complete failures. Scarcely 
a month goes by without a new scheme 
or a change of the old plan. Successful 
business is not built up on changing 
plans of visionary schemes. These in¬ 
vestors have always been promised an 
accounting. They have never had it. 
The testimony is that the books are 
garbled, thei accounts confused, the en¬ 
tries mixed, and all in such a jumble 
that it is impossible to separate the ac¬ 
count of one concern from another, and 
no one can tell from them what the 
assets and liabilities are. A successful 
business cannot be established on such 
lines, however successful it may be in 
confusing creditors and courts. With 
this record of confusion and failure 
Mr. Lewis proposes to take up a new 
enterprise on other people’s money. He 
says he has none of his own. He pro¬ 
poses to take up the _ enterprises in 
which he has already failed. When he 
discontinued his magazines he admitted 
that they had been losing money for two 
or three years; and gave as a reason 
that he could not compete with other 
publishers. He gave it as his opinion 
that not more than a half dozen mag¬ 
azines in the whole country were oper¬ 
ated at a profit. Now he wants to try 
the venture again with your money. 
He has intimated, too, that he could buy 
the land at University Heights and 
make a profit on it. He tried that be¬ 
fore, too, and failed, as all schemes on 
the same basis must fail and ever do 
fail ultimately. When the receivers sell 
that land the mortgages must be paid. 
If there is anything left, which is doubt¬ 
ful, the other creditors are entitled to 
it. These creditors are entitled to every 
cent it is worth and will bring. It will 
be the duty, and we think the purpose, 
of the court to get it for them. As long 
as one creditor wants his cash, he has a 
right to insist that he get a proper share 
of the assets. So that to get it Mr. 
Lewis would be obliged to pay more 
for it than any other investor would be 
willing to pay. He would probably do 
that if the creditors supplied the cash; 
but even if honestly and wisely man¬ 
aged, it will simply be a new specula¬ 
tion and just as likely to result in an¬ 
other loss as in any gain at all, with 
no possible chance of making up mil¬ 
lions of old losses. Few, if any, suc¬ 
cessful and responsible real estate op¬ 
erators would take large sums of money 
for speculative investments and guar¬ 
antee safety and 5% annual profits on 
it. To invest money safely and make 
it earn 5% interest is no easy task. Men 
of broad knowledge and experience 
often fail to do so, and any honest man 
who has tried it with large sums will 
tell you how utterly hopeless is such a 
task as Mr. Lewis proposes. 
So far we have assumed sincerity on 
the part of the promoters. But we have 
the record of Mr. Lewis. On his own 
sworn testimony he took about $200,000 
out of women and children on a lot¬ 
tery scheme, and he did not keep his 
promise with the people who sent him 
money for the old U. S. bank. He rep¬ 
resented that the publishing company 
was earning a quarter of a million year¬ 
ly. The inspector who examined the 
books say it never earned a dollar of 
profit any year. The records show that 
he voted land to himself and one of 
his associates without compensation 
other than indefinite service. He in¬ 
duced bank stockholders to trade bank 
stock of value for publishing company 
stock that has no value. He sold de¬ 
bentures on the representation that they 
were good and safe security, and that 
$3,000,000 of them would put the holders 
in possession of property worth $9,000,- 
000 . 
The accountants figure that the de¬ 
bentures are worthless, that the money 
received for them was not used as 
promised, and it would require ten to 
twelve mi ions of them to cover tl.e ob¬ 
ligations and purposes. He induced peo¬ 
ple to send him money for Reader’s 
Pool certificates under promises that the 
holders of the certificates would become 
the owners of land free and clear, then 
held at option, and make great profits 
from it. Accountants say the land was 
not held at option, and when bought it 
was mortgaged for about the full pur¬ 
chase price. He sold country people se¬ 
cured notes, and when he got their 
money he sent them a common unse¬ 
cured note and a letter which only in¬ 
creases the suspicion of fraud, if not 
absolutely confirming the evidence of a 
swindle. 
Now let us leave Mr. Lewis out of it 
for a moment. Suppose some slick 
schemer that we have known in the past 
put on the Lewis shoes, and said he 
wanted to work his “sucker list” all 
over again. Would not he make exactly 
the same plea that Mr. Lewis now 
makes ? He would tell them enemies were 
responsible for their loss. Send him 
some more money and he would credit 
in the old securities and reorganize so 
as to recover their first loss. He would 
protect those who stood loyal, and aban¬ 
don those who deserted his standards 
Ip short, would he not work the con¬ 
fidence game to the limit to allure the 
last possible dollar from his gullible 
dupes? We can give you the records 
of dozens of schemes that have been 
worked in this way. 
The secured notes and the bank se¬ 
curities have some value. Lewis wants 
to get the proceeds of them into his 
hands as he did when the old bank was 
closed out. Those old bank stockhold¬ 
ers might have demanded cash from the 
receiver. They took Lewis stock and 
now have nothing. These creditors have 
the same privilege now. They can de¬ 
mand cash or accept promises and paper 
from Lewis. The great bulk of his cer¬ 
tificates and notes in the hands of cred¬ 
itors are worthless. To promise r-y- 
thing for them is to promise someth.ng 
for nothing, but the condition of the 
promise is more money. If your dollar 
bill burns in your furnace you may as 
well try to get it back by throwing an- 
oiber in after it. 
It is p national scandal that such a 
proposition can be circulated through 
the mails. Reforms, however, grow out 
of great abuses, and we believe the 
Lewis abuses of the postal facilities will 
hasten a reform to prevent the robbbery 
of inexperienced people through the 
U. S. mails. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—Five men were killed and 
22 injured by the collapse without warning 
of a three-story concrete building being 
erected for the Prestolite Company on 
Harmon street, Indianapolis, Ind., December 
8. Carpenters, painters, structural iron 
workers and laborers were employed on 
various parts of the structure when it sud¬ 
denly collapsed, and more than thirty men 
weer carried down with the debris. 
The State of Ohio, through the Attor¬ 
ney-General, will help Judge Edward E. 
Corn and Prosecutor S. M. Douglas clean 
up election rottenness in Pike county. Ten 
Pike county citizens were indicted Decem¬ 
ber 8 on charges of bribery, perjury, in¬ 
timidation and other violations of the cor¬ 
rupt practices law in the recent election. 
Scores if not hundreds more indictments 
are expected. Reports from Pike county 
said that some of the indicted persons had 
either fled from the county, fearing con¬ 
viction and a penitentiary sentence, or had 
been spirited away by others who wished 
to prevent confession. 
Damages estimated at close to a quarter 
of a million dollars resulted from a fire 
December 10 which practically destroyed 
the business block of Miner. Read & Tul- 
lock, wholesale grocers, on State and Water 
streets. New Haven, Conn. 
President Ernest Napier of the New 
Jersey State Fish and Game Commission 
announced December 8 that arrangements 
had been completed under which $30,000 
will be expended in further stocking the 
State with English pheasants, Hungarian 
partridges, quail and deer. An order has 
already been placed for 6,000 English 
pheasants and 1,000 Hungarian partridges. 
Contrary to its custom in the past, the 
commission will not receive the birds until 
next March, the contract stipulating that 
at that time none but strong, healthy birds 
shall be received. The commission believes 
that this course will insure better results 
than liberating the birds earlier, as the 
mortality occasioned by releasing them in 
the Winter or buying them at this time 
and holding them over until spring has 
in the past been large. 
December 9 over 10O miners were buried 
by an explosion in the Cross Mountain 
mine at Brieeville. Tenn. It is believed 
that there are about 80 dead : 20 bodies 
were brought out the day after the ex¬ 
plosion, but rescue was found very difficult. 
It is believed that the explosion was caused 
by coal dust. Five living men were taken 
out after three days’ entombment. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—Ten million dol¬ 
lars’ damage has already been done in 
the State of Pennsylvania by the chestnut 
blight, according to the commission ap¬ 
pointed on the authority of the Legislature 
by Governor Tener to eradicate the dis¬ 
ease. In addition to this there has been 
damage to other States to the amount of 
about $15,000,000. This will constitute 
but a small part of the loss occasioned, 
according to a statement made by the 
commission now, if the blight is not 
checked, as the chestnut timber in Penn¬ 
sylvania alone is valued at from $60,000,- 
000 to $70,000,000. If the disease is not 
wiped out it will sweep the magnificent 
chestnut forests of the South. The annual 
chestnut output of the eastern part of the 
United States is worth $22,000,000. Penn¬ 
sylvania has appropriated $275,000 to de¬ 
fray expenses in checking and wiping out 
the blight. Thirty trained men are in the 
field in this State. They have located the 
advance line of the blight and are super! 
vising the cutting and burning of diseased 
trees and locating new infections. 
The Department of Agriculture is re¬ 
questing quotations on approximately 1,- 
200,000 pounds of vegetable and 50.000 
pounds of flower seed for the 1912-1913 
Congressional free seed distribution. Bids 
will he opened by the Board of Awards at 
2 p. m„ January 9. 1912. Copies of speci¬ 
fications can be obtained from the office 
of Seed Distribution, Bureau of Plant In¬ 
dustry, Department of Agriculture, Wash¬ 
ington, D. C. 
The ninth anunal meeting of the Ala¬ 
bama State Horticultural Society will be 
held at Jasper, Ala., January 25, 1912. 
Many excellent speakers have been secured, 
and papers will be read on fruit growing, 
pruning, spraying, harvesting and market¬ 
ing, vegetable growing and insects, and 
practical demonstrations of spraying out¬ 
fits and in pruning and setting of fruit 
trees. 
That there will be no reduction in present 
prices of meat in this country is declared 
by John W. Springer, long president of 
the National Uve Stock Association. In 
his speech at the banquet preceding the 
opening of the annual convention of the 
American National Live Stock Association, 
December 12, Springer said : “The stock- 
men are in the saddle. The last census 
shows that in the last decade the number 
of cattle in the United States has decreased 
7 per cent. The last census shows also 
that during the same period the number 
of American meat eaters has increased 21 
per cent. There will never be a reduction 
in the price of meat.” The banquet was 
given in honor of Murdo Mackenzie, the 
retiring president of the association, who 
has just closed out all his vast cattle 
interests in this country and will go to 
Brazil to take charge of a 9.000,000 acre 
stock ranch. 
ADMINISTRATION.—Senator La Fol- 
lette introduced in the Senate December 
7 a hill providing for the improvement of 
the public range by the regulation of graz- 
i"~. T':h conservation measure has tbs 
approval of the National Conservation As¬ 
sociation. of which (.ifford Pinchot is pres¬ 
ident. It affects an area of over three 
hundred million acres, or about one-sixth 
of the United States. The bill provides 
for the division of the public range into 
grazing districts to be fixed through proc¬ 
lamation by the President, worn out areas 
are to be reseeded and poisonous plants 
eradicated. Wolves, mountain lions and 
other wild animals which prey upon live 
stock are to be exterminated, as well as 
destructive rodents like the prairie dogs 
which render useless in the aggregate vast 
areas of grazing land. The bill authorizes 
the Secretary of Agriculture to regulate 
the number of stock grazed within each 
district and sets a minimum yearly fee of 
four cents an acre for the first ten years. 
A committee representative of the stock- 
men in each district is to be appointed by 
the stockmen themselves. This committee 
will rule, subject to the approval of the 
Secretary of Agriculture, on all important 
questions immediately affecting the use of 
the range in the district. The bill in no 
way retards or prevents settlement within 
the grazing districts by homesteaders or 
any other occupancy and use under the 
public land laws and contains a specific 
clause to that effect. It also expressly 
provides that all water on the lands af¬ 
fected by the bill already subject to the 
jurisdiction of the United States mav be 
used as heretofore for domestic, mining, 
milling and irrigation purposes. Twenty- 
five per cent of the proceeds from grazing 
fees will go to the States in which the 
grazing districts are situated. These re¬ 
ceipts to be used for schools and roads and 
for the advancement of agricultural educa¬ 
tion as the State Legislature may pre¬ 
scribe. 
The Senate December 11 considered its 
first bill. The measure had been reported 
from the Committee on Education and 
Labor by Senator Borah and provides for 
the establishment of a children’s bureau 
under the Department of Commerce and 
Labor. Senator Heyburn made a violent 
attack on the hill. He asserted that it 
was not the duty of Congress to look 
after the rearing of children. Such matters 
he said are within the power and the duty 
of the States. After some discussion the 
hill was laid aside for the time being at 
the request of Senator Borah. 
The Sherwood dollar a day pension ser¬ 
vice bill, which will add about $75,009,000 
a year to the annual expenses of the Gov¬ 
ernment if it becomes a law, was passed 
December 12 by the Democratic House of 
Representatives. The final vote on the 
measure was 229 to 92, eight of those reg¬ 
istered in the negative being Republicans. 
Sneaker Clark voted for the bill. Char-man 
Fitzgerald of the Appropriations Commit¬ 
tee and Chairman Underwood of the Ways 
and Means Committee against it. 
Senator James A. O’Gorman of New 
York introduced in the Senate December 
11 a general parcels post bill. The bill 
fixes a rate on letters or sealed parcels 
carried in localities having free delivery 
service at two cents on all parcels weigh¬ 
ing up to four ounces and one cent on each 
additional two ounces. In non-free deliv¬ 
ery localities the rate is fixed at one cent 
for each two ounces. Matter on rural 
routes is put in a class by itself and the 
following rates applied : On parcels up to 
one-twenty-fourth of a cubic foot or' one 
by six by 12 inches in dimensions and 11 
pounds in weight, five cents; larger par¬ 
cels up to one cubic foot, six by 12 bv 24 
inches in dimensions, up to 25 pounds 
weight. 10 cents. The bill provides that 
no parcel over six feet long or weighing 
over 500 pounds shall be carried on a 
rural route; that on registered matter, 
where no declaration of value is made, an 
indemnity shall be paid up to $10 on proof 
of loss and value, and that a certificate may 
be issued on demand, showing that the 
package was properly posted. Where value 
is declared the Government shall be liable 
for the full value loss. The following 
registry fees are provided; On a valuation 
of $50 a fee of 10 cents and on each addi¬ 
tional $50 worth of value a fee of two 
cents. Claims for reparation must ,bie 
submitted within one year from the date 
of loss. 
“TTion Livino.” —Here we have a very 
prosaic subject done up in rhyme: 
“A stately squash grew on a vine that 
hung upon a fence, and it was large and 
smooth and fine, and sold for seven cents. 
The buyer put it in a crate and shipped it 
off to town ; the railway charged 10 rents 
for freight, and got the money down. Then 
divers kinds of middlemen passed that old 
squash along, and each one got a rake-off 
then, in which they saw no wrong. The 
jobber to the grocer sold that squash one 
Autumn day, and it was scarred and 
bruised and old, and tending to decay. The 
farmer man who raised that squash to town 
came on his wh"rl; at dinner time he 
said: ‘B’gosh, i 11 have a good square 
meal.’ So to a restaurant he sped, and 
ate some squash on ice. and then he stood 
upon his head when he was told the price. 
‘Your price on squashes makes me hot!’ he 
cried; ‘your game is bunk! I’d sell a 
wagonload for what you charged me for 
that chunk !’ Our eyes with teardrops are 
awash, we’re viewing with alarm; for when 
we go to buy a squash we have to buy a 
farm.”—Walt Mason. 
Local prices paid last week for various 
farm products are as follows : Potatoes, 70 
cents; eggs, 36 cents; veals in demand, 
hog-dressed 10% to 11 cents; Spring 
chickens alive nine cents, dressed, 12 
cents; fowls, alive, eight cents; dressed. 
10 cents; turkeys dressed 19 cents; ducks 
16 cents; pork, dressed, eight cents; 
heavy, 7% cents; veals alive, seven cents; 
wheat. $1 ; oats, 50 cents; choice Timothy 
hay, $18 to $20 at barn. As to auction 
prices of farm produce I cannot at this 
time give you definite information, owing 
to my having been away for a time. I 
would say, however, that I have never 
known of a single instance in this locality 
or vicinity where silage has been offered 
for sale, either public or private. Manure 
usually sells for an average price of $1 to 
$1.50 per load, if good. There is consider¬ 
able demand for beef and bologna cows. 
Good beef cows bring five t.o six cents; 
steers, 7% to eight cents; hoifers, six to 
6% cents. Good dairy cows, fresh, $50 to 
$60 ; strippers. $25 to $30. r. s. 
Burlington, Pa. 
